For an overview of arts and crafts during
the Middle Ages,
please see: Medieval Art
(c.450-1450).

Drawing of a flying buttress
(a semi-arched exterior support)
from Reims Cathedral (1230)
by Villard de Honnecourt. The
two piers (left & centre) support
the wall of the cathedral (right).
Notice how the thrust of the roof
is transmitted downwards and
outwards from wall to pier via
the flying buttresses.

Introduction

If Romanesque
architecture expressed the protective strength of God in unpredictable
times - Gothic architecture
reached for the sky and celebrated the perfection of God's universe. Using
a range of innovative features, the Gothic
style replaced the dim and narrow Romanesque naves with brighter,
more spacious interiors filled with light that poured through the huge
Gothic windows. In time, Gothic naves would soar vertically upwards and
walls would soon be covered in glorious stained
glass art to worship God and inspire the congregation. Originating
in the Ile de France, Gothic cathedrals were not always built in
one go: more often, between 50 and 100 years were needed - sometime much
longer - before a cathedral was fully complete. As a result cathedrals
tended to be built using a mixture of Gothic styles, belonging
to one or more of three phases: Early Gothic (1120-1200), High Gothic
(1200-80) and Late Gothic (1280-1500). High Gothic broadly coincides with
Rayonnant Gothic architecture, while
Late Gothic coincides with Flamboyant
Gothic architecture. In English Gothic architecture,
these variants are represented by the Decorated and Perpendicular styles,
respectively. Gothic art signalled
a major change in attitude. Romanesque buildings were intensely practical,
and could double up as military or defensive structures. In contrast,
Gothic buildings were intensely unworldly. They sought to inspire
people and to express complete faith in the perfection of God. To do this,
as well as employing the latest architectural innovations, Gothic architects
and their patrons employed thousands of craftsmen, including dozens of
artists. As a result, the French Gothic cathedral was a vast treasury
of Christian art, involving stained
glass, statues, reliefs, wood carvings, mural paintings, tapestries, illuminated
manuscripts and precious goldsmithery.

Around the middle of the 12th century,
a new artistic sensibility with new architectural principles began spreading
from the cathedrals of northern France. The Romanesque church gave way
to an organism that replaced the construction system based on thick load-bearing
walls in favour of a structure - called a skeletal system - that freed
itself of all superfluous parts by identifying the forces acting on the
interior - the thrusts of the vaults and the weight of the roof and walls
- so as to direct them along predetermined routes. This transformation
took place over the course of little less than a century and began in
the Ile-de-France (Parisian region), where the desire to build
very high naves resulted in close attention to the technical and formal
aspects of construction. This preference for high naves, inherited from
certain architectural currents of Romanesque
art - from Cluny to the great Ottoman cathedrals - became the central
compositional element of churches, leading to a new way of perceiving
space and articulating it following a geometric division marked off by
the vertical forms of pillars running to full height and pointed arches.

As part of the 'skeletal system', the ribs
of the vaults form an arched framework that concentrates the thrust from
above and transfers it to points that are externally reinforced by rampant
arches, which are in turn counterbalanced by flying buttresses that transfer
the thrust of the weight to the ground. From the formal point of view,
the upward soaring of the interior structure, the bay used as a module
to create the internal space, the articulation of the walls, and the great
expanses of windows result in the dissolution of the walls, replaced by
a 'diaphanous system'. The autonomy of the parts is reduced in favour
of greater spatial fusion, and the multiplicity of visual lines results
in evocative effects of expansion. This agile and elastic structure frees
the walls from their load-bearing function, making possible the broad
expanses of windows with polychrome glass that bring rays of coloured
light into the church interior, filling that space with its mutable shadings.

This light, so different from the half-light
of Romanesque churches, became the fundamental element in the figurative
theory of Gothic architecture, which uses light physically and metaphorically
to reveal the logical and constructive procedures - arranged in accordance
with the scholastic thinking of the period - that support the construction
of the cathedral. In the view of medieval theology, the Gothic cathedral
was an expression of cosmic order and a symbolic image of the immaterial
substance of God reflected in the harmony of the building's proportions
and its luminosity. The spires, pinnacles, and towers of the facade accentuate
the prevalence of the vertical, symbolic of the tension toward the divine;
the door of the sky is illuminated, and it illuminates the interior thanks
to the insertion of a great rose window, a true mystical membrane between
the light of God and the heart of the faithful.

The Gothic cathedral is also an expression
of the new urban civilization
that created it. These upwardly soaring, enormous, breathtaking churches
were seen as reflections of the ideal image the period had of itself.
Such was the fundamental incentive behind these buildings, and it led
to ever more ambitious constructions.

The imprint that Gothic left on the later
figurative and architectural culture of Europe was the cause of heated
critical debate, and beginning with Italian humanism in the 15th century
many thinkers took a negative view of the apparently anticlassical aspects
of the Gothic. The maniera dei Goti ('style of the Goths') was
looked down upon during the era of Renaissance
architecture as arbitrary and barbaric, but by the arrival of Baroque
architecture, a number of great Baroque
architects - principally Francesco
Borromini (1599-1667) and Camillo-Guarino Guarini (1624-83) - were
starting to grasp the technical qualities and the formal originality of
Gothic structures, while the romantics of the 19th century embraced the
Gothic wholeheartedly, looking at it with renewed fondness and re-evaluating
its broad expressive horizon, thanks to figures like John
Ruskin (1819-1900) and Viollet-le-Duc
(1814-79).

Origins of Gothic
Cathedral Design

The architecture of France's Royal Domain
was the source of the building methods of the mature Gothic, for the builders
there sought to increasingly accentuate the articulation (or jointedness)
of their structures while at the same time seeking to reduce the solidity
of forms, causing greater transparency and illuminated space. Fifty years
of experimentation produced results that were anything but homogeneous,
from the cathedrals of the Paris region, which either had no transept
or had transepts that projected only slightly, to the Picardy cathedrals
of Noyon and Soissons, with complex layouts and large transverse bodies.
The common denominator of these structures is the urge to achieve the
greatest possible height, which in the more important examples translates
into an elevation with four levels, justifying the presence of a triforium
with the need to counterbalance the thrust of sexpartite vaults; the continuity
between the nave, transept, and choir resulted in interiors of great elegance
and astonishing effects of harmonization. The fusion of the double-wall
system borrowed from Anglo-Norman architecture with the linear grid led
to stratified structures of incredible lightness and transparency. The
builders at Laon and Paris experimented with other technical and formal
novelties; at Notre-Dame the vaults of the nave are supported by flying
buttresses visible above the roofs, while Laon reinterpreted the Anglo-Norman
technique of the mur epais by progressively stripping away the
exterior wall, creating a 'telescopic' effect. These experiments were
the precursors of the ponderous plasticism of the buttresses and rampant
arches of the cathedral of Chartres.

The Great
French Cathedrals

The architectural evolution of the cathedral
from early to late Gothic was accompanied by an increased exaltation of
light and the related opening of the walls through the use of stained
glass. Builders were immediately drawn to the flying buttresses that made
this opening possible, and their awareness of the powerful structural
implications of these buttresses is indicated by the rapid spread of their
use in increasingly elaborate and complex variations. In the largest constructions
they are used in overlapping groups arranged in series; they are supported
by increasingly powerful buttresses topped by pinnacles and spires that
radically transform the exterior appearance of the structure, breaking
up the volumes in a sort of perspective kaleidoscope or a replication
of the rhythmic modulation of the interior bays. The column statue
became a feature of the exterior, as did narrative relief sculpture around
the doors and portals. There were equally important interior changes,
for the use of flying buttresses made it possible to increase the height
of the nave to the maximum technically possible without having to use
tribunes above the aisles; the partition of the nave now reached its mature
form, articulated on elevations with three levels of great size thanks
to the elimination of the gallery.

It was in the two great worksites of Bourges
and Chartres, where work began around the same time in the middle of the
1190s, that the potentials for improvement made possible by the removal
of the tribune - uncomfortable and hardly functional - were exploited
to achieve a new monumental appearance full of balance and harmony among
the parts and the whole.

The cathedrals of Chartres, Bourges, Reims,
and Amiens also experimented in the use of the so-called pilier cantonne,
which permitted the central column to rise without interruption to the
vault, augmenting the vertical sense and accelerating the compositional
rhythm.

The monumental concept of the great cathedrals
is an expression of the ascent to the French throne of the Capetian Philip
II (1165-1223), while the spread of the Gothic across Europe is related
to the growing influence of French politics and culture over the course
of the 13th century.

Gothic Cathedral
Art

As mentioned in the introduction, the typical
Gothic cathedral was packed with various types
of art designed to glorify God and inspire the congregation. Gothic
sculpture was employed throughout the cathedral, notably in the form
of narrative reliefs around the doorways, illustrating stories from the
Bible. (Note: see English Gothic
sculpture and German Gothic
sculpture for a comparison with French works.) In addition, column-statues
became an important decorative addition to the exterior. Inside the cathedral,
the pulpit and choir were often decorated with intricate wood
carving in a variety of figurative and abstract styles. Stained glass
was another very important type of Catholic
art inside a church, with entire walls seemingly devoted to it. The
finest example is probably Sainte Chapelle
in the Palais de la Cite in Paris. Biblical illuminations were
another important ecclesiastical artform. Gothic
illuminated manuscripts were unmatched by any other type of medieval
painting and every cathedral would own a large number of exquisite
gospels texts illuminated by master craftsmen. Goldsmithing
was also very much inevidence, either in the form of reliquaries for holy
relics, or liturgical chalices, crosses, crucifixes and the like. Artists
would also be employed to produce a variety of altarpiece
art, as well as tapestries, mural paintings and more. In short, the
typical French Gothic cathedral is not just an architectural masterpiece,
it is also a treasure house full of medieval
Christian art.

10 Greatest
Gothic Cathedrals in France

Strasbourg Cathedral (1015-1439)

Even though Notre-Dame Cathedral Strasbourg
is part Romanesque (most of the Romanesque structure burned down in 1176),
it is generally considered to be one of the finest examples of Late Gothic
architecture. The German architect Erwin von Steinbach was a major contributor
to the new Gothic design during the period 1277-1318. It has only one
spire, although at 142 metres in height it made the cathedral the tallest
building in the world from 1647 to 1874. It is also famous for its pink
colour, which comes from the particular type of Vosges sandstone used
in its construction. However, the cathedral is best known for the colourful
hue of its interior, caused by sunlight pouring through its huge stained
glass windows.

Basilica of Saint-Denis (begun 1135)
(Cathedral 1966)

Originally a large medieval abbey church,
now a cathedral, Saint-Denis is considered to be the first Gothic church.
Located on the site of the earlier Church of Saint-Denys de la Chapelle
- built about 475 by Saint Genevieve and said to contain the relics of
Saint Denis, a patron saint of France - the basilica became the burial
place of almost every French king from the 10th to the 18th century, and
attracted pilgrims from all over the country. The new Basilica was begun
in 1035 under Abbot Suger (1081-1151), who rebuilt portions of the old
Romanesque-style church using a number of revolutionary new structural
features. Indeed, it represented the first design to concentrate the weight
of the structure on relatively thin columnar supports. Known at first
as the "French Style", it was later christened "Gothic".
Saint-Denis is now acknowledged as the earliest example of a major structure
to be designed and built in the Gothic style. Furthermore its 13th-century
nave, built by Abbot Odo Clement, is also a prototype example of Rayonnant
Gothic architecture, and an architectural model for cathedrals and abbeys
across the Continent.

Laon Cathedral (1160-1235)

Together with Bourges Cathedral and Notre-Dame
de Paris, Laon Cathedral is one of the most outstanding examples of Early
Gothic architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries. The present structure
began with an early choir section and was finished as far as the east
side of the transept by 1174. A second building campaign lasted from 1180
to 1235. The nave was erected with four tiers of clerestories, triforium
and tribune under sexpartite vaulting, and then the initial choir was
replaced by the greatly enlarged present choir. The cathedral's floor-plan
is cruciform, and the choir ends in a straight wall rather than an apse.
Its west facade - with its three portals, each adorned with Biblical sculpture,
and its rose window dating to 1210 - ranks alongside that of Notre Dame
(Paris) in the consistency of its Gothic style. Its spacial arrangement,
for instance, is accentuated by the colossal dimensions of the openings
and the enormous central rose window. The chiaroscural articulation of
the facade is enriched with detail including the extraordinary inventiveness
of the towers.

One of the world's most famous Gothic cathedrals,
Notre-Dame was among the earliest buildings in the world to use the arched
exterior support, known as the flying buttress. Begun, like Laon and Bourges,
during the Early Gothic, its transepts were later redesigned in the Rayonnant
style by Jean de Chelles then Pierre de Montreuil. Its treasury is noted
for numerous sacred relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns and a fragment
of the True Cross. Sadly, during the French Revolution, a good deal of
its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed, although this didn't prevent
Napoleon Bonaparte from being crowned Emperor in the cathedral on December
2, 1804. An extensive program of repair supervised by the restoration
expert Eugene Viollet-le-Duc began in 1845. Notre-Dame was added to the
UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991.

Tours Cathedral (1170-1547)

Saint Gatien's Cathedral in Tours exemplifies
the 15th century Flamboyant style of Gothic architecture, although it
includes elements of three schools of architecture - Gothic, Romanesque
and Renaissance. It is renowned above all for its sublime stained glass
art and its ornate west front. The present building replaced a 12th century
Romanesque structure, parts of which (including a section of the nave
and the tower buttresses) still remain. The Gothic south transept and
towers were erected about 1170, while the chancel (the area around the
altar) was redesigned and built during the period 1236-1279, by the architect
Etienne de Mortagne. Most of the nave, aisle and chapel were constructed
in the 14th century, largely by the architect Simon du Mans, although
the nave was only completed in the 15th century, thanks to the architects
Jean Papin, Jean de Dammartin and Jean Durand, and the largesse of Charles
VII and the Duke of Brittany.

One of the finest complete examples of
the French High Gothic style, Chartres is unusual for having survived
largely intact. Its architecture has undergone only minor changes since
the early 13th century, while most of its sublime stained glass dates
back to between 1205 and 1240: indeed, four lancets contain panels of
Romanesque glass which survived the fire of 1195. Most of its stone
sculpture also survived. For example, the hundreds of figures which
adorn its three great facades - West, North-transept and South-transept
- all date back to the 13th century. In 1979, Chartres was added to the
UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites.

Bourges Cathedral (1195-1230)

Together with Notre-Dame (Paris) and Laon,
Bourges Cathedral is a magnificent example of early Gothic architecture.
Unusually, it has no transepts, which cross the nave in most Gothic cathedrals,
although it does have a double-aisle. The absence of the transept allowed
the architect of Bourges to configure the aisles as two stepped bodies
that wrap the apse without interruption. The exterior structure is marked
by thick walls and an array of slender flying buttresses - the arched
external supports which absorb the weight of the vault and nave. Their
steep angle allows them to channel the thrust to the outer buttress piers
in a very effective manner. Bourges Cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site since 1992.

Reims Cathedral (1211-1275)

Designed by four master masons (Jean-Le-Loup,
Gaucher de Reims, Jean d'Orbais and Bernard de Soissons), Reims Cathedral
stands on the site of the basilica where Clovis (466-511) (first king
of the Franks) was baptized by Saint Remi, Bishop of Reims, in 496. Together
with the cathedrals of Amiens and Chartres, Reims (the traditional place
where the kings of France were crowned) is one of three major examples
of "High Gothic" architecture of the 13th century. The choir
at Reims - with a single ambulatory - has five radiating chapels, the
wall of which has a passage at the height of the windows that reveals
its thickness. The windows form a single ogival opening increasing
the sense of serene equilibrium. In no other building does Gothic architecture
achieve an equally exact correspondence between exterior projection and
interior space and at the same time the maxiumum unity of expressive clarity.
The facade of the cathedral - extensively renovated in the late 19th century
- features three portals decorated with numerous statues, and a giant
rose-window dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The facades of the transepts
are also adorned with reliefs, featuring a range of Biblical
art, including a scene from The Last Judgment. Fire destroyed
The cathedral's roof and spires were destroyed in the fire of 1481. In
1991 Reims Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Amiens Cathedral (1220-1270)

Standing on a ridge overlooking the River
Somme in the Picardy region, Amiens is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals
in France. It was designed by Robert de Luzarches along with Thomas and
Regnault de Cormont. The stone vault of the nave is 42 metres (138 ft)
tall, second only in height to the incomplete Beauvais Cathedral. Although
the majority of its original stained glass has been lost, the cathedral
is noted for its 13th-century relief
sculpture on the west facade (see photo, top-left) and the south transept
portal. The focus of the west facade is the rose window, but the extreme
height of the nave placed the window in a very high position, leaving
the ground floor portals to be connected to the triforium by way of two
superimposed galleries that further emphasize the close connection between
the exterior and interior. Overall, the result is a highly articulated
front - cut by deep shadows and loaded with elements at different levels
- in sharp contrast with the severe simplicity of the interior. Amiens
Cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.

Beauvais Cathedral (1225-1600 unfinished)

Best-known for its structural collapses,
Beauvais Cathedral is also noted for its especially fine choir, described
by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc as "the Parthenon of French Gothic",
as well as its exquisite stained glass of the 13th, 14th, and 16th centuries,
some of which was created by Renaissance artist Engrand Le Prince, a native
of the town. (See: Stained
Glass Art: Materials & Methods.) Work began on the cathedral under
Prince-Bishop Milo de Nanteuil, following a number of fires in the previous
wooden-roofed basilica. The choir was completed in 1272, with the highest
vault of any cathedral in Europe - its height of 48 metres (157 feet),
far exceeds the 42-metre nave of Amiens Cathedral. Unfortunately, in 1284,
part of the vaulting above the choir collapsed - basically because the
structure was too tall. Despite this setback the vaulting was rebuilt
to the same height, though with additional supporting columns and a new
sexpartite vault structure replacing the old quadripartite one. Construction
continued during the 16th century with a new transept and an ambitious
153 metre high central tower. Then in 1573, the tower collapsed, after
which few additions were made. Beauvais Cathedral is also noted for the
wooden doors of its north and south portals - carved in Gothic and Renaissance
style, respectively - as well as its collection of tapestry
art dating back to the 15th century. Beauvais is considered a seminal
example, since the collapse of its vault in 1284 marked the end of an
epoch, and from then on, builders and patrons abandoned the aspiration
for ever-higher structures which had been the key characteristic of Gothic
architecture. Beauvais is considered to be the final development of the
style established at Chartres and Reims - a point beyond which no one
could go.

Gothic Cathedrals
Outside France

Outside France, some of the greatest Gothic
cathedrals include: the medieval Burgos Cathedral, in Spain, begun
around 1221; York Minster, begun in 1230, whose Great East Window
contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world; Cologne
Cathedral begun in 1248 but not completed until 1880, the greatest
example of German Gothic
art; the famous Florence Cathedral,
begun in the Gothic style in 1296 by Arnolfo
di Cambio, and completed in the Renaissance style in 1436, under Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377-1446); the 14th century St Stephen's Cathedral
(Stephansdom) in the heart of Vienna; the massive Milan Cathedral
begun in 1386 during the pre-Renaissance trecento;
and Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world,
built between 1401 and 1528.